Blog 26: Continued: Google’s Defeats in Germany; Few Victories Elsewhere

The Mannheim Regional in German rejected Google’s attempt to enforce an injunction against Microsoft and its email system.

Sad Android 

Google was expecting $12.5 billion in the next four years or 3 billion annually from Microsoft on two SEP patent infringements, with video codec and Wi-Fi.  However, the court ruled that Google should only receive 1.8 million annually until the patent expires, which will not even cover the lawyer fees.   

German court lifts the injunction on Apple’s over Google’s automatic notification patent that affects Apple’s emails service. While also upholding a Microsoft injunction for a multi-part text messaging interface, which is forcing companies using Android to license this patent from Microsoft.

These infringement lawsuits have proven that Android is not “free” like Google claims they are. Many companies using the Android system will have to license patents in order to use it.

With all this bad news this month for Google we have to leave with some good news. So here are some court victories.

HTC helped Google and Samsung defeat in the Mannheim Regional Court a previous injunction from Apple’s 3G SEP patent.

German court dismissed Nokia’s lawsuit on HTC’s Google play, where Google acted as an intervener. However, this is only delaying the inevitable, because android devices will need to license this patent from Nokia soon.

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/april-was-disastrous-for-google-on.html

Blog 25: Summary of a Bad April for Google in Court

Two weeks ago I spoke to the class how Google is losing badly in the patent ward. Google’s androids system is open source, it is missing many key patents, and is infringing on many patents. This is all recipes for lawsuits and injunctions. This year, April represents many of Google’s shortcomings in the Patent war, as many infringement cases piled up to one very bad month for Google. Now, it is more apparent than even that Google way overpaid for Motorola.

In the beginning of the month, the ITC found Google’s keyboard to infringe on some aspects of Apple’s keyboard text selection Patents. There will be a noticeable degradation of Google’s keyboard because of that.

Also, a case of Google vs. Apple for non SEP’s was slowed down a few months. This is in favor for Apple because Google is attempting to overturn some previous injunction which will have to hold for longer.

In another important case Google loss all but one SEP infringement, for a total of 5 patent infringement. The loss was on the basis of claim construction, which is a major loss for the Google lawyers.

Foxconn signed a deal with Microsoft to work together and address Androids infringement issues. This is very significant as Foxconn produces 40% of the electronics and they have thousands of patents that can prove to be harmful for Google.

Microsoft signed its 20^th licensing deal with ZTE over some patents that are used on Android. Nokia, Apple, and other third parties also hold patents on Android.
  
http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/april-was-disastrous-for-google-on.html
     

Blog 24: Claim Construction Working For Defendant J&J on a Stent Patent

Many defendants, companies trying to show they did not infringe prefer a claim to be constructed broadly or narrowly. When hoping for a narrow claim it is in order to build a good case showing non infringement. When hoping for a broad case it is to build a case showing the claim is invalid.

Dr. Bruce Saffron is suing J&J for infringing on his patent which helps cover damaged tissue with a permeable sheet or spray. The cover prevent large molecules from going through while allowing smaller one to flow through. This is used in stints inserted for arteries all over the body. Previously he won 50M from Boston Scientific. Now, he won a case for 500M from J&J. However, four other circuit judges claimed that J&J is not infringing on the patent. The four judges each ruled on different reasons. The judges were all deciding based on the claim construction if the device needs a sheet or not, and if which bond the claim includes. This shows that just because one judge reads the claim one way does not mean that another judge will read it the same way. 

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2013/04/stent-patent-cannot-heal-divided-claim-construction.html

Blog 23: Ericsson and Nokia Selling Many Patents

 We always read about wireless mobile companies suing for patent infringement. In order to make the litigation, these companies need to acquire many patents. Lots of these patents end up being sold to other companies. In the past few weeks Ericsson and Nokia sold many of these patents to companies in other industries. Here is a look at what kind of patent deal they sell.  

Ericsson sold 820 patents to Unwired Planet Inc. The company invented many technologies that connect mobile phones to the internet. Part of the deals is that Ericsson will receive 20% of the first 100M in sales, 50% of first 500M, and 70% for any more revenue. Plus, this comes at a time when Unwired Planet is suin Google and Apple for infringement. I am specualtaing that acquiringg these patents will help their case.

In other news, Nokia transferred 30 patents to Memory Tehcnologies, LLC which is a company that does R&D in the physical, engineering, and life sciences industries. 

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2013/04/recent-patent-assignments.html

Blog 22: Another loss for Google against Apple and Microsoft

Apple and Microsoft are attempting to get a injunction lifted in Germany. The injunction is for automotive push notification coming from a cloud source. Apple had to stop this on their German products for services that used any automatic push notification like their icalendar, iemail and other data. This only applies to programs that are automatically updated and not ones that need to activated periodically.

Google Loses

The author thinks that the injunction will come to an end very soon. This will most likely happen through Apple and Microsoft filling a nullity, making the injunction invalid in the Germen Federal Patent Court. Another reason for the author’s speculation is that the court expressed doubt about the validity of the patent. If Google loses then they will need to pay Apple for holding a improper injunction. This is really sad for Android as this is the only injunction they are holding in the world and it is about to crumble down. While Apple and Microsoft have injunctions on Google or at least have accomplished some offensive litigation victories.     

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/appeals-court-likely-to-give-german.html

Blog 21- Nokia V. HTC continuing their litigation in the HTC

HTC Vs Nokia 

 Nokia filed paperwork for its lawsuit against HTC in the ITC, but it will be dropping three claims and focusing on four. The ITC usually expects a few claims to be dropped before beginning litigation in order to follow the time constraint. It seems that usually a case is filed in one court and then some claims are dropped and continued in the ITC. In the ITC is where companies try to give as much power as possible to each patent by attempting to put an injunction on the opposing product.  

However, in Germany Nokia was suing HTc on a 40 claim case and they won an injunction case. Now, HTC is countersuing Nokia which will likely drag on the case and prevent the injunction from happening so soon.  

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/nokia-streamlines-itc-case-against-htc.html

Blog 19: 2 Wars; ITC Vs. ALJ and Apple V. Samsung

Administrative Law Judge Pender made a remand against the ruling of Apple vs Samsung. Judge Pender added claim 34 and 35 to the review which was for a method of providing translucent images on to a computer display. The conclusion of the review will likely help Samsung in overturning Apple’s previous win on claim 34 and 35. The argument for Samsung is that they are not infringing because they are not selling the product, however Apple says the patented information is in the owner’s manual and it is being imported so that is grounds for infringement. The ITC staff who were sitting in on the review agrees with Apple and recommends the commissions to overrule, but Judge Pender still ruled in favor of Samsung. However, Samsung can still get an exclusion order from the ITC which is an import ban.

So there are two wars going on here Apple V Samsung and the SLJ Vs. the ITC. We see that ALJ  Judge Pander reviewed a previous case and overruled on a previous case. However, the ITC staff were also overseeing the case and they are trying to dismiss Judge Panders ruling.  

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/corrected-itc-ruling-finds-androids.html

Blog 20: Apple crushes Samsung in a battle of standard essential patents (SEP)

In the second round hearing of Apple V. Samsung with Judge Lucy Koh Apple has been crushing the battle. All of the claims were for patent infringements for smartphone systems patents. Four of five of Apple’s standard essential patents (SEP) claims held up with no problems and only one of Samsung’s claims held up. SEP usually deals with code that makes one device or system compatible with another, like making Wi-Fi compatible with every Wi-Fi capable device.

Apple beats Samsung

Apples four winning claims were Patent No. 5,666,502 which “provide solutions for improving speed and efficiency of data entry into user interface fields,"  Patent No. 5,946,647 - the famous "data tapping" patent.  The last two were dealing with SEM. Patent No. 7,761,414 on "asynchronous data synchronization amongst devices" and Patent No. 8,014,760 on "missed telephone call management for a portable multifunction device". The only thing protecting Samsung’s phones from future injunctions is  Patent No. 7,756,087 on a "method and apparatus for performing non-scheduled transmission in a mobile communication system for supporting an enhanced uplink data channel."  The Samsung claims that were tossed out were because of the word construction of the claim and for certain patents trying to be too broad. Apple attempted to add more infringements to the case, but the Judge Koh did not allow it. Seeing how well the case was going for Apple, another filing would have put Samsung in more trouble.